Nelson’s Dryden Hunt and the Regina Pats will be heading into the Western Hockey League playoffs this coming weekend as underdogs after finishing the regular season seventh in the Eastern Conference.
The Pats wrapped up their regular season on Saturday night with a 7-2 loss to the Brandon Wheat Kings to finish the season with a 37-27-6-2 record. Starting Friday night in Moose Jaw, the Pats will take on the second place Warriors in the first round of the post season.
Hunt, a 16-year-old rookie, finished the season with five goals and five assists. He scored the first goal of the game in the Saturday game against Brandon. The Nelson Minor Hockey grad appeared in 62 of the Pats’ 72 regular season games.
Game two of the series goes Saturday and will also be played in Moose Jaw. The series will shift to Regina for games three and four which take place next Tuesday and Wednesday.
In the Western Conference, former Nelson Leafs star Dylan Walchuk and the Spokane Chiefs finished the regular season in fifth place to set up a series against the Vancouver Giants who finished only one point ahead of the American club.
Walchuk came to the Chiefs at the roster deadline after deciding not to pursue a NCAA hockey career. In his 34 games, the sniper mamaged to score 10 goals and add 14 assists.
The Spokane-Vancouver series gets underway Friday in Vancouver. Games three and four will be in Spokane next Tuesday and Wednesday.